Leading the way on new gun laws

Published 5:02 pm, Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Speaking like a puppet being controlled by none other than Wayne LaPierre himself, state Rep. Craig A. Miner, with straight face, said Tuesday: "We believe it's not the gun that actually kills the person. It's the person that kills the person. Now that's pretty cold, but that's the way it is."

Miner, R-Litchfield, until Tuesday was co-chairman of the Bi-Partisan Gun Violence Prevention Working Group, which was formed after the Dec. 14 Newtown massacre to create legislation to minimize the likelihood of such an atrocity from being repeated. On Tuesday, however, the panel became the Politics as Usual Non-Working Group, as legislators from respective sides of the aisle retreated to positions that were long ago entrenched.

Democratic and Republican members of the task force, to their credit, did agree on several issues that could help make people safer from gun violence -- requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales, including private purchases; tougher criminal penalties for gun-related crimes; and requiring a gun permit for ammunition purchase.

But they split on the most obvious, and most important, provisions that we need them to enact. While Democrats on the panel favored expanding the state's ban on assault weapons to include semi-automatic rifles similar to the Bushmaster used to kill 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Republicans opposed the measure.

The split was the same on a proposal to ban ammunition magazines containing more than 10 rounds.

Which brings us back to Rep. Miner's "it's not the gun that actually kills the person" quote. This has for years been the go-to defense of the National Rifle Association and like-minded groups against any legislation that might interfere with gun manufacturers' profits.

The truth, of course is that people do kill people. But people holding rifles like the Bushmaster kill a whole lot of people very, very quickly. The settings and circumstances change, but one circumstance has been true to all: A highly disturbed individual was able to get his hands on a killing machine that enabled him to inflict massive carnage before anyone could stop him.

A common claim is that if we outlaw these weapons, only outlaws will possess them.

That might be true in the short term. But if we take away the primary market for these weapons, manufacturers will stop making them. Millions of new guns are sold in this country every year. The first sale of a weapon might be above board, but a large percentage of those guns, every year, make their way onto the black market. It is the legal gun trade that feeds the illegal one. Getting high-killing-capacity guns off the streets will take a long time. But that time will never come if we don't stanch the supply at some point.

Finally, many argue that state laws mean little if the federal government doesn't enact similar restrictions. That's 100 percent correct. Without a national ban on assault weapons, they'll keep flowing from places where they are legal into those where they are not. This is why those who oppose any new gun law can disingenuously point to places like Washington, D.C., and Chicago, which have relatively strict laws and high murder rates, as evidence that gun laws do not work.

But federal lawmakers have been known to selectively employ the "states' rights" defense when there is a chance of displeasing constituents. On matters of civil rights -- and the right to be safe from gun violence is a civil right -- the states and courts often have had to supply the steel for Washington's spine. This is another of those times. The more states that enact meaningful gun controls, the more likely the federal government will be to act.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy last month issued his own recommendations for new gun laws. He was criticized at the time for not waiting until the task force completed its work. We now know where the task force stands.

Connecticut has a responsibility to lead a national movement away from rampant gun violence, and back toward sanity. It is time to begin doing so.